Grimm: Fairy tale Detective
by sammarie228
Summary: When Nick's aunt Marie falls ill, he moves from NY to Portland to help care for her. But what happens when he learns she's hiding something important? He'll have to make a huge decision whether to stay or go, and everyone in town will be affected by his choice. Rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Nicholas Burkhardt had been working in the New York Police department since he was twenty three.  
When he heard his aunt Marie had been diagnosed with cancer, he flew to Portland to see her. At the time, he stayed only a few weeks before he had to return to work. He continued to visit around holidays.

Marie assured him that she was fine and told her nephew not to worry.

Then Nick got a call a few days ago from a guy claiming to be a concerned neighbor. He told Nick that Marie had taken a turn for the worse and he should make preparations to come to Portland for a long stay.

The next day Nick made arrangements with his boss. His girlfriend, Juliette, agreed to keep an eye on things for him until he could come back to New York.

So that was why the New York detective made a cross country road trip in the only rental car available. The car was a beat up sedan, which in his opinion, the rental company should have gotten rid of a long time ago.

The trip took him two and a half days to drive and by the time he rolled into Portland, he felt exhausted. He pulled over to the side of the road and reached for his cell phone, which had fallen between the seats since he'd last used it. He dialed Marie's number and waited for her to answer. As it rang he looked out his window to take in the sights of the city.

He watched a leggy blonde exit a building on the other side of the street. The corporate looking woman managed to smile at him as she did her balancing act in towering heels. He smiled politely back. The smile froze on his face and his eyes went wide with fear when the woman's appearance _changed_ right in front of him.

He kept calm when his aunt answered, not letting a shred of fear show in his voice while he told her that he had made it safely to town and would be at the house in mere minutes.

He hung up and rubbed his eyes furiously. "It's sleep deprivation and a combination of crossing time zones. There's absolutely nothing wrong with you." Nick repeated the statement out loud several times before starting the car up again.

**I know I should finish one of the others before I start something new, but with the show coming back on tonight, I got inspired. Let me know what you think, please?**


	2. Chapter 2

Nick slung the shoulder strap of his suitcase over his shoulder and slammed the trunk door. He heard the front door open and looked up with a wide smile on his face. His aunt did appear to be much more frail than the last time he'd seen her, but he had imagined things were much worse. She gave him a smile and slight wave before taking a seat on the top step leading down from the porch.

She offered Nick a smile as he approached the porch steps, but it seemed forced and weak. She struggled to get back to her feet, and Nick held his hand out to help, but she waved it away.

Once on her feet, Marie wrapped her arms around Nick in a big hug.  
"I've missed you, Nick. But you really didn't need to come," she said. Dropping her arms and taking a step back, she gestured toward herself and said, "See? I'm perfectly fine."

Nick didn't feel like arguing with an ill, old woman.  
He nodded, as though agreeing with her and replied, "I'm sorry. I got a call from one of your neighbors, he seemed really concerned about you."

Marie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Phooey, did he give a name? Even if he didn't I can guess who it was. That Monroe shouldn't worry the way he does." She shook her head and closed her eyes as though disgusted by the kindness of her neighbor. Nick grinned at his aunt's reaction.

"Aunt Marie," he reasoned. "You should be thankful to have neighbors who care so much. Not everyone does."

"I'll be sure to send him a fruit basket," she replied with a slight hint of sarcasm.

She nodded her head toward the house and said, "Come in though, Nick. You must be tired. Here we are just making chatter while you're weighed down by that bag." She gripped the door knob as she opened the door wide. She moved to the side to allow him to walk in first.

"Hurry up now. I'd like to keep the bugs outside if I can," she said.

Nick chuckled as he walked into the large house. He set his bag down by the coat rack near the door. He was quickly shooed to the side as Marie entered the house. She closed and locked the door behind her.

"Would you like some coffee Nick? I was actually having a cup with the old mutt before you rolled in. He had to head back to work though," Marie said as she shuffled into the kitchen. Her ratty slippers hardly making a sound on the wood floors. Nick followed her hearing some mutterings about a 'poor excuse' and 'sets his own hours'.

She stood on her tip toes reaching up for another mug. Nick noticed the two that were half full on the kitchen table. He took the warm mug that his aunt thrust in his hands, a few droplets hitting his hands and the floor. She moved past him to add some more to one of the mugs on the table and took the other one to the sink.

"Do you want to sit here and talk some or will you be taking your coffee to the guest room?" Marie asked innocently. Nick snorted, sploshing some of the coffee. Marie's 'guest room' doubled as her downstairs living room.

"You can join me in the guest room if you want, but I might go to bed soon," Nick said. "I'm practically dead on my feet."

His aunt nodded in understanding. She patted his shoulder and said, "I'll see you in the morning then, Nick." He nodded and watched her carefully head upstairs. It appeared to be an agonizingly slow process and Nick wondered if she always slept upstairs or if she was just putting up the effort since he was there. He took his cup into the living room with him and settled on the couch with one of the blankets that had been draped along the back.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day Nick awoke early and left a note for Marie, to let her know he'd taken a walk. Nick felt he needed to clear his head a bit and get some fresh air. He took a hiking path through the woods near Marie's home. There's some yellow crime scene tape strung up, blocking his path and forcing him to walk around.

By walking around the crime scene tape, Nick notices another path. Curious, he walks down it to see where it leads to.

It's not as long a trail as the one he'd originally been on, and soon finds himself facing a street. Nick is hidden behind a lot of shrubbery though. Taking in the view, he just watches the street.

A flannel shirted man walks out of a house and up to a rusted, metal mailbox. Nick watches the man check through his letters. The detectives lets out an audible gasp when the man morphs into a sort of, wolfish creature. The creatures eyes flick toward Nick's hiding spot before running back into the house, leaving the mail scattered about on the sidewalk.

Nick inhaled sharply through his nose and shook his head. The dark haired man closed his eyes and took some deep breaths before turning around and walking back to Marie's house.

He was greeted by a delicious smell when he walked through the front door. Walking down the hall, he made his way into the warm kitchen. His aunt is seated at the table with a plate of several blueberry muffins in front of her.

She smiled at him and nudged the plate in his direction.

"Have one, they're still warm," she said. Nick snatched the top one off the pile and took a seat across from her.

"It's delicious, thanks," he said around the mouthful of muffin. She shook her head at him but didn't chastise him.

"Nick, now that we've had a good night's rest, I'd like to talk a bit. If you don't mind?" Marie said.

The muffin suddenly felt dry in his mouth and he struggled to swallow it. "Yeah, no, I don't mind." He replied, "Fire away."

She pushed up the frayed sleeves of her pink robe and folded her hands on the table. She looked up to meet Nick's eyes and said, quite bluntly, "Nick, have you been seeing things?"

He coughed, choking on a couple of spare crumbs. He pounded at his chest until he could get a bit more air.

"Sorry," he gasped. "What do you mean, seeing things? I'm not hallucinating. I'm not crazy, if that's what you're asking."

She chuckled and motioned in the air, as though trying to shoo his fear into the next room. "No, nothing like that. I know that you aren't crazy. We all think that at first though if there's no one there to explain." Nick frowned, which Marie took as a cue to continue.

"Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm were not fairy tale writers. They were record keepers as well as, sort of amateur detectives. We are the surviving members of their family."

"Wait," Nick said, interrupting his aunt. "So we're descendants of the Brothers Grimm?"

His aunt's look of irritation at being interrupted softened and she smiled. "Yes, we are. And they passed on a gift. Only those who are descended from the Grimms can see the creatures that Wilhelm and Jacob wrote about."

Nick sat back in his chair, absorbing the information. He grinned and shook his head, then frowned ever so slightly.

"How'd you know I've been seeing some, unusual things? Does this mean Little Red Riding Hood is real?"

Marie lifted a hand to shush her nephew. "One question at a time," she teased, making Nick's ears flush red. "I figured you'd be seeing them soon. Men seem to get it later than women do. Red does exist, as does the wolf. Speaking of which, Monroe called this morning while you were out. He was terribly frightened."

"Monroe? Your neighbor Monroe?"

"The very same," Marie laughed. "I put his great grandmother's head on a post so it took a lot for him to trust me. I'm sure he, along with the other Wesen, are more afraid of you then you could ever be of them."

"Wesen?" Nick asked weakly, feeling a twinge of a headache coming on.

Marie tsked, "Oh, Nick. You're in for a steep learning curve."


	4. Chapter 4

Nick was in the trailer that was permanently parked in his aunt's backyard. He had never questioned why it was there, and had never been inside it before. He had always just accepted it was there.

Now that he was inside the trailer, he realized he should have maybe been a bit more curious. There were stacks of old journals and books along with vials of liquids that had strange labels and a weapons chest. He was currently leafing through one of the first journals while Marie looked on from the small couch built into the trailer. She was wrapped up in several blankets and looked very out of place in the trailer. Nick had been reading the same paragraph several times in the last half hour, trying to make sense of it.

He looked up at Marie, a plea of help clearly written on his face.

"What's this thing here? Something about a boundary line?" He asked. Marie sighed heavily and closed her eyes for a minute. She opened them again and answered Nick's question.

"One of Jacob's sons came to America. He settled in Portland with most of the Wesen community. He felt it was his task to keep Wesen from humans. He along with three of the more powerful witches created a boundary. Wesen can come into Portland, but are unable to leave once they are in the city. Understand?" she said.  
Nick nodded, his brow furrowed in thought.

"Is that why your friends with some of them now? Because I'm sure if I were confined to a space, I'd want to, I don't know, take it out on someone, I guess."

Marie shrugged and said, "Well, I befriended Monroe, because he's reformed. Even if given the opportunity, the only way he could really kill someone is if they attempted to kill him, or if they were on the Royals' side."

Nick thumped his head against the table and groaned. "There are Royals too? Never mind, so Wesen can come into this line. Does that mean there are still Wesen in the rest of the world?"

"Yes," Marie replied. "But there's a condition to the boundary you should know. It only works when a Grimm stays in Portland. Once the Grimm leaves, the line deactivates and the Wesen are free to leave."

"So if anything happens to you," Nick trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought or sentence.

Marie nodded and said, "Yes, once the cancer claims me, the Wesen community will be free to leave and wreck havoc."

Nick lifted his head from the table slowly. He looked over at his aunt and said, "Unless, I were to stay in Portland."  
Marie shifted, and was about to reply when there was a knock at the trailer door. "Marie!" came a shout from outside. "Are you in here? Damn it, this is why I said you need a cell phone!"

Marie grinned and called, "Come on in Monroe."

The door cracked open and he poked his head through, "The last time you said that you were testing out your Murciélago matraca and nearly blew out my ear drums."

Nick raised an eyebrow and looked between the door and his aunt and asked, "What's a Murciélago matraca?"  
Monroe's eyes widened and he cried, "Oh, sorry Marie. I didn't realize you had company."

She shook her head and said, "It's alright, Monroe. Come on in." The flannel shirted man hesitantly stepped inside the trailer. Nick offered a polite smile and stuck his hand out. "Nick Burkhardt," he said. "And you're obviously Monroe. My aunt talks about you a lot."

"Only good things I hope," Monroe jokingly replied, shaking Nick's hand. Nick nodded in response and said, "Yeah, hey this isn't rude to ask what you are exactly is it? I mean, I saw you the other day, but Aunt Marie didn't specify on what I saw."

Monroe turned red and stared at his feet. He cleared his throat and said, "Urm, well Wesen, we use old German to describe each other. I'm a Blutbad. You would know it more of like, a wolf."

"So the big bad wolf? And a Blutbad as in, there's more than one?" Nick asked.

Monroe smacked himself in the face with a palm, wondering why he had decided to visit Marie in the first place. He sighed and moved his hand away. "Yeah, well first off, anytime you hear a wolf in one of your 'fairy tales', it's not necessarily the same wolf," he said. "And also, the Wesen that you're reading about? They're dead. Unless they were immortal, it's just their descendants that are still walking around. But don't worry man, most of my family is dead. And I don't think many Blutbaden are in Portland."

"Aren't you in contact with them?" Nick asked. When Marie had tried to explain things to him earlier, he figured all Wesen had some contact with one another.

"Not really, I mean, most Blutbaden stay true to their instincts and since I'm reformed I'm sort of an outcast. Of course other Wesen are still terrified of me so I really don't interact with any of them." Monroe shrugged as though it wasn't that bad, but Nick felt bad now for asking.

"It probably doesn't help that you hang out with the Grimms," Nick joked lightly. Monroe grinned and shrugged in response.


	5. Chapter 5

It was late afternoon when Monroe left. Nick immediately felt he had gained a friend who could help him with this Grimm stuff. Marie was also happy that the two hit it off. She felt safer that Nick at least had Monroe to lean on for help when she died.

"Aunt Marie, I'm going to the police department tomorrow," Nick said.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "What for?"

Nick stirred the sauce he was making for their spaghetti dinner and said, "I'm going to see if there's any positions open. I'd like to transfer, but if worse comes to worse I could perform as a private detective I guess."

Marie furrowed her brow. "What are you saying Nick?"

"Well," the raven haired male, said. "I'd like to know I have a job here before I move all my stuff. And Portland would be a lot nicer to work and live than New York."

Marie sniffed and wiped and eye roughly with the sleeve of her robe. "Your life is in New York. I don't want you to feel obligated to keep the boundary up." Nick shook his head whapping the wooden spoon against the inside of the pot to get the excess sauce off.

He turned to look at his aunt who was seated at the table and fixing a salad. He leaned against the forward against the counter and folded his hands together. Heaving a large sigh, Nick replied, "It's not that I'm being forced into this. I want to move here Aunt Marie. I want to help you."

She shook her head. "What about the Juliette girl? I know you care about her, Nick." She threw the diced up tomato a bit more violently into the salad bowl and some pieces scattered on to the table. Nick grinned and ducked his head so she wouldn't see. He could sense her frustration and didn't want it turned more directly at him.

"I was going to call her later tonight to see what she thought about it," he answered. Marie didn't respond, so he turned back to the sauce that had begun to boil a bit. They worked in silence on the dinner.

Nick arranged the noodles and sauce on to two plates and set one in front of Marie. She pushed the large bowl toward him and said, "There's a Royal who works in the department. He's a descendant of Charming and a complete embarrassment Don't let on that you know what he is and you'll be fine. You should act as though you can't even see his Wesen side."

Nick nodded and said, "Understood."

Nick did up all the dinner dishes and Marie went up to bed early that night. She was frustrated with her nephew, even though she knew she shouldn't be. She didn't want to be in the living room when he called up his girlfriend. She felt it would be awkward listening in while trying to watch the TV. She'd probably only serve as a distraction during the conversation.

Nick whipped the damp dish towel over his shoulder and pulled his cell phone from his dark colored jeans. He waited for Juliette to answer and smiled when she did. "Hey, how's it going?"

"Not too bad," she replied. "I miss you though. Will you becoming home soon?"

"That's actually what I called to talk about," he said. He leaned back against the kitchen counter and exhaled lightly.

"Oh?" Juliette said. The redhead smiled, though it felt slightly forced. She was worried about what her Grimm boyfriend had to tell her.

"Yeah," he replied. "I'm thinking about moving to Portland. I'd like to be near my aunt in case she has another episode. And, I was hoping you'd move here as well?"

Juliette froze. She knew Nick didn't know about her yet, but she couldn't move there. She was willing to go anywhere else on Earth, but she feared that boundary line more than anything. Nick was a great guy though, and she couldn't bear losing him. She sighed and rubbed her temple. "Nick, that's kind of a lot that you're asking. Could I maybe have a day to think about it?"

Nick swallowed and said, "Yeah, of course. Take as much time as you need. I love you."

She smiled and said, "I love you too. Goodnight, Nick."


	6. Chapter 6

"Wu, take Puck here into the lockup. He's charged with juvenile misconduct and vandalism. Ah, you must be Detective Burkhardt, right? My office is this way." Captain Renard lead Nick through the maze of desks in the squad room to his office. Nick's jaw twitched slightly when the boy that the Asian officer was leading Woged. He mentally reminded himself not to let his poker face slip at any point.

"Thank you for meeting with me today Captain," Nick said as he took a seat across from the Captain.

Renard nodded and replied, "It's no problem. It's not every day a New York detective pays us a visit. What can I do for you?"

Nick shifted in the uncomfortable chair. "Well, I'm actually here because I was considering transferring here. Now, I haven't spoken to my own Captain yet, but I wanted to talk with you first to see if you had any available positions."

"Now it's funny you say that," Renard said. "Hank's partner is retiring next week. I haven't floated the position out to the academy yet. If you can email your resume before the end of today, I think we can work something out."

Nick smiled, "Thanks so much Captain Renard. It should be in your inbox today." He leaned over and shook the other man's hand. Renard offered as good a smile as he could. He pointed out his office window toward the African American man seated at one of the desks.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to him on your way out?" Renard said.

Nick nodded, "Sure thing. Thank you again, sir."

Renard watched the Grimm shake hands with Hank and exchange small talk. He shook his head, keeping away the attempt to Woge. The last thing he needed in this city was a young and healthy Grimm. But, keeping the boundary line up also kept a little problem named Adalind Schade from leaving Portland. He needed the Hexenbiest under his thumb and away from the Royal side of his family.

Keeping the Grimm in his squad opened up opportunities for him. He could quite possibly get closer to Marie's home and trailer. He desperately wanted the key that everyone knew was in her possession it was difficult to get near at all with that ridiculous guard dog always hanging around.

Perhaps if he gained enough of Nick's trust he could gain entrance to the trailer and get his hands on the key.

Nick called his Captain on his cell phone once he stepped out of the precinct. The man was all too happy to be rid of the detective who practically lived on the other side of the country already. Nick then called a moving company as well as his landlord and the rental car company. He'd done a lot for a morning. Time to study some more and then maybe he would treat Aunt Marie to some lunch since she had another round of chemo tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

Juliette paced back and forth. She knew Nick wanted an answer and it was unfair of her to be taking so long to give him one. But wasn't what he was asking also unfair? To just, uproot herself and leave New York behind? All of her friends and co workers were here. Then again, maybe this was just a phase Nick was going through.

Give Marie's cancer time to run it's course and Nick would come running home. She froze and glared at the floor. Gosh, wasn't that an ugly thought? She shook her head, annoyed with herself and continued pacing.

Well, perhaps, since Snow White had lived so long ago, there was so little of her blood flowing through Juliette's veins that the girl could technically be considered human. Or maybe she could take something to fool that damn line.

She grabbed her coat off the back of a kitchen chair and shrugged into it. She snatched her purse on the way out the door. She was on her way to the closest Wesen spice shop she could find to see if they could offer her any advice.

* * *

Marie had been listening to her nephew cancel subscriptions and reroute things all morning. She was curious as to where he was going to live. She welcomed him with open arms, however she knew the couch in her living room was not comfortable, nor was it a suitable place for someone to properly call home.

Nick could move all his things into her garage, it was fairly empty anyways. Any small items might have a place in the trailer, depending on what it was.

Marie had an idea. While Nick went out to the trailer to study, she picked up her phone. She would call Monroe and ask if Nick might be able to use his spare room. Since the boys had hit it off so well, she couldn't see it becoming too big of a problem. If anything happened, they had the skills to defend one another.

**Sorry for the incredibly short chapter. I promise next one will be longer! **


End file.
